China IT Minister: 5G Licenses Coming this Year; Deployment timing dependent on technology maturation
by Yang Ge (edited by Alan J Weissberger)
China will issue 5G wireless communications licenses by year-end, the nation’s telecoms minister said, as the country pushes aggressively into 5G before the IMT 2020 standard or 3GPP Release 16 spec are completed.
“I expect 5G licenses will be issued at some point this year,” Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei, said on Thursday in a session at the Boao Forum for Asia in South China’s Hainan province, the Shanghai Securities News reported. Wei added that actual timing for the launch of 5G network deployments will depend on maturation of the necessary technology, most notably 5G handsets. “Large-scale commercial service will need to wait until networks are perfected,” he said. “We need to give China’s (wireless) carriers some time.”
Editor’s Note: The three state owned and controlled China carriers are: China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom.
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China is the world’s largest mobile market with some 1.5 billion subscribers, with many in the world’s most populous country holding multiple accounts. But in the past the nation was slow to roll out the latest generations of new mobile communications, often preferring to wait for the technology to mature first in more advanced Western markets.
Beijing has taken a sharply different tack in 5G, aiming to become a leader in the space for a technology expected to power many of the wireless high-tech applications of the future such as telemedicine and self-driving cars. Accordingly, it wants to roll out its networks sooner rather than later, and for the first time could be among the world’s first major markets to launch service.
The technology could facilitate data-transfer speeds up to 10 times faster than current 4G technology, said Yang Chaobin, president of 5G product lines at China’s own Huawei Technologies, the world’s leading manufacturer of telecom equipment. Miao estimated that 20% of 5G will be used for person-to-person communications, while 80% will be used for communication between things such as applications behind self-driving cars.
Among China’s three major carriers, the largest, China Mobile, is aiming to roll out “pre-commercial” 5G service this year, with full commercial service available sometime next year, said Vice President Li Huidi, according to the Shanghai Securities News report. China Mobile’s smaller rivals, China Unicom and China Telecom, have previously said they will each invest around $1.2 billion this year on 5G networks.
Miao also said that countries and companies should work together on 5G, even as a U.S. coalition is expressing concerns about the security of equipment produced by Huawei, worried it could be used for spying by Beijing. “In my view, in the development of 5G, the most important thing is open collaboration, and a single standard for the world,” Miao said.
Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez also spoke to the recent politicization of 5G earlier in the week at Boao, saying competition in new technologies including 5G is not between different nations, and instead is a competition among enterprises.
Contact reporter Yang Ge ([email protected])
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Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=0_Yobh9MPQw
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Within a span of 24 hours, Ericsson and Nokia both claimed to have 16 commercial 5G deals with publicly named service providers. Speaking at Ericsson’s annual shareholder meeting, CEO Borje Ekholm said Ericsson’s radios have been “5G-ready since 2015 and can be used also for 5G NR (New Radio) with a remote software installation.”
Considering that much equipment can be remotely upgraded for standards-based 5G, Ekholm said Ericsson has “shipped more than 3 million 5G-ready radios to our customers worldwide.”
Nokia followed up the next day to celebrate its 30th commercial deal, including 16 with named operators. A1 Telekom Austria inked a new contract with Nokia to deploy a network after relying on the Finnish equipment maker for its 3G and 4G networks.
“With these agreements, creating new partnerships and continuing existing relationships around the world, we can see the promise of 5G becoming a reality,” Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri said in a prepared statement. “Many of the commercial 5G deals we celebrate today include multiple elements from across our end-to-end portfolio as our customers turn to Nokia at each stage of their 5G investment cycle.”
ZTE reported annual results for 2018 this week that included news that it has “collaborated with 30 global operators in 5G,” shipped 10,000 massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) base stations, and 400 NFV commercial and proof-of-concept (PoC) cases worldwide.
Using a 5G commercial network in Seoul, Samsung and KT said they successfully achieved 1 Gb/s speed over the air using 3.5 GHz frequency. KT also announced that its 5G network will be ready for “end-user mobility service” in 85 cities by the end of this month.
And finally, not to be overshadowed by 5G interests in business, a group of U.S. senators introduced the Secure 5G and Beyond Act. If passed, the legislation which would require the president to create an inter-agency strategy to secure 5G and future technology and infrastructure networks, designate the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to coordinate the implementation of that strategy with heads of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Justice Department, Defense Department, and the director of national intelligence. The bill would also prohibit the nationalization of a next-generation network.
https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/5-days-of-5g-firsts-ericsson-nokia-zte-samsung/2019/03/
Shanghai Becomes World’s First District With 5G Coverage
The 5G stations are being installed in different parts of China, including Tibet, as part of Huawei’s plans to lead the 5G trials despite the opposition. Shanghai claimed on Saturday March 30, 2019 that it has become the world’s first district using both 5G coverage and broadband gigabit network as China seeks to establish lead over the US and other countries in the race to develop next generation cellular mobile communications.
Trial runs of the 5G network, backed by state-run telecom carrier China Mobile, officially started the service in Shanghai’s Hongkou on Saturday, where 5G base stations had been deployed over the last three months to ensure full coverage, the report said.
During a launch ceremony, Shanghai vice-mayor Wu Qing made the network’s first 5G video call on an Huawei Mate X, the world’s first 5G foldable, AI phone, it said.
Huawei, China’s telecom technology giant, whose revenue in 2018 crossed USD 100 billion, is battling a wave of opposition to its 5G trials from the US and different countries. Huawei has denied official links with the Chinese government.
https://www.news18.com/news/world/shanghai-becomes-worlds-first-district-with-5g-coverage-2083285.html
China Mobile Hong Kong (CMHK) and property company Sino Group have jointly held what they are calling Hong Kong’s first in-mall 5G experience showcase at the Olympian City 2 mall. The Future is Now 5G Experience Showcase, which was held over four days ending yesterday, comprised six experience zones intended to introduce and demonstrate 5G technology.
These zones were based around concepts including autonomous vehicles, smart glasses and a machine that purports to be unbeatable at janken (also known as rock paper scissors) by using 5G leased lines and a sensory system to detect gestures as they are thrown.
Other zones highlight the speed improvement between 4G and 5G, the potential of 5G technology in smart city development and a start-up exhibition based on IoT technology.
“Out of Hong Kong’s many mobile carriers, CMHK is the first network provider to receive the 5G trial permit, and has succeeded in engineering Hong Kong’s first end-to-end 5G network testing as well as the first Commercial Equipment Field-Testing of 28GHz 5G base stations,” CMHK chairman Dr Li Feng said.
“In the future, CMHK will continue to adhere to the concept of ‘4G changes lives, 5G changes society’ by presenting “5G+ Project” in three agendas: firstly, to complement the existing 4G network with 5G infrastructure; to promote 5G with new networking technology; and develop more comprehensive 5G ecosystems to maximize the value of 5G.’
https://www.telecomasia.net/content/china-mobile-hong-kong-holds-5g-experience-showcase
Is China ahead of U.S. in 5G? Well they certainly sent more operating company delegates to the Brazil ITU-R 5D meeting where IMT 2020 RIT/SRITs were progressed!
China Mobile Communications Corporation
Mr HU Zhenping, Deputy Manager of Resource Management Division of Technology Department
Dr ZHANG Yanyan, Senior Engineer
Mr ZHENG Yi, Project manager
China Telecommunications Corporation
Mr QI Fei, Engineer
China Unicom
Mr FENG Yi, Manager
Mr LI Yi, Senior Engineer
Ms ZHOU Yao, Senior Engineer
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In sharp contrast, U.S. operators sent ONLY 4 delegates: 2 from AT&T, 1 from T-Mobile, 1 from Sprint. As usual ZERO from Verizon which is an ITU recognized operating agency.
FCC sent 1 delegate to look after frequency aspects.